But successes so astonishing lose much of their lustre, when we enter upon an analysis of the operations of the conquerors. It is true that Spain was evidently too weak, to add to her domains America which had a population twenty times greater than her own, and an extent of territory equal or superior to that of the whole continent of Europe. Besides, the Spaniards of that period, unambitious of the glory of conquering, but excessively fond of riches, left the task of conquest to a very small number, and did not frequent the scenes of danger till the rumour of the gold and silver, there discovered, excited their cupidity.

Whilst the dangers and the toils were encountered by the audacious and the fool-hardy; all the advantages were seized by that motley crew of bloodsuckers with which every nation swarms. The handful of conquerors were obliged to make cunning supply the deficiency of number; falsehood, perjury, cruelty, ferocity, the excitement of civil war among the unhappy people they wished to subjugate; such were the arms which they ceased not to employ; but all these means derived their efficacy from the courage, valour, intrepidity and firmness of the conquerors. In the midst of crimes, which were said to be indispensable, we distinguish traits capable of reflecting honor upon human nature. Their conduct presents an assemblage of virtues and vices, which make the reader successively experience the sensations of admiration and horror. The heart is alternately expanded and contracted in contemplating a series of actions, in which there is a most extraordinary mixture of the admirable and hor

rible, the generous and ferocious, the faithful and perfidious.

My undertaking does not admit of pursuing the steps of all those astonishing men. It is confined to what respects the eastern part of Terra Firma and Spanish Guiana.

Of all the conquests which have been atchieved in the new world, in the name of the Spanish monarch, that of those parts of which we are now treating was the longest, the most toilsome, and, we may add, the most imperfect. The mountains with which this country is covered, the multitude of rivers, whose inundations interrupt the communications for a great part of the year; the lakes, marshes, and deserts, opposed difficulties, which only those men violently goaded by ambition could brave; but what must have still more contributed to retard the progress of the conquerors, in several parts of America, was the multiplicity of Indian governments, which not being incorporated so as to form one nation, like those of Mexico and Peru, rendered the victories of the Spaniards less decisive, and theirnegociations more difficult. Every cacique, waged a separate war, a war of stratagem and ambuscade; the caciques seldom entered into leagues, and seldomer still either offered or received battle in the open field. A conquered nation gave sometimes no more than four leagues of additional territory to the conquerors; the country was disputed by inches, and its conquest effected by dint of courage, patience, privations and dangers.

Discovery of Terra Firma by Columbus.

Terra Firma was not discovered until the year 1498, and that glory too was reserved for Christopher Columbus. It was the third voyage that he made from Spain to America. His project was to advance to the south as far as the equator; but the calms prevented him, and he was carried by the currents to the Mouths of the Dragons, situated between the island and Terra Firma. Lopez de Gomara maintains that Columbus discovered all the coast as far as Cape de Vela; but Oviedo, whose testimony I have learnt to respect, from the character for accuracy, which he sustains amongst his own countrymen, says that Columbus did not sail along the coast of Terra Firma, farther than the point of Araya, which is north and south of the point west of Margaretta,*from which he steered a northern course in order to repair to St. Domingo, Don Fernando Columbus, son of the admiral, says that his father, after having discovered the gulf of Paria, coasted along Terra Firma as far west as the Testigo Islands, from which point he sailed with a fair wind to St. Domingo; an account which too nearly corresponds with what is related by Oviedo, not to consign the assertion of Lopez de Gomara to the list of inaccuracies, which are so frequent with him.

Ojeda and Americus Vespucius pursue his steps. Upon the account which Columbus rendered to the Spanish court, of the discovery of that part of Terra Firma, of the manners of the inhabitants

* Qui est nord et sud de la pointe ouest de la Marguerite.

with whom he had intercourse, and of the riches which he had observed, consisting chiefly of pearls, the government gave Captain Alphonso Ojeda permission to continue the discovery. Americus Vespucius, the man who enjoys a celebrity usurped from Columbus, became interested in that armament, and resolved upon a voyage to America, yielding rather to the impulse of interest than of glory. Ojeda arrived in twenty-five days at the territory of Maracapara in the year 1499. He followed the coast as far as Cape de la Vela, entering into several ports in order to collect more minute information. From Cape de la Vela he sailed for St. Domingo, according to Oviedo and Robertson; but according to Charlevoix, he returned before that to Maracapana, a village situated upon the coast of Cumana, where he caused a brig to be built.

Upon his return to Spain, he found means to persuade his countrymen, that the true discovery of America was due to himself, since Columbus had discovered but a few islands, which were merely to be considered as its avenues. His imposture at first passed for truth; his name was given to the new world, which it continues to retain, notwithstanding the efforts of history to restore that honour to Columbus.

Spanish vessels go to trade there.

Not long after, the account of Columbus to the Spanish government attracted to Terra Firma another vessel from Spain, whose only object was commerce, but which had permission from the king to prosecute the discovery of the country. This vessel

commanded by Christopher Guerra, touched at the coast of Paria, at Margaretta, Cubagua and Cumanagola, now called Barcelona. In those different places, in exchange for gew-gaws, he obtained a great quantity of pearls, gold, Brazil wood, &c. of which he formed a very rich cargo. Guerra pursued his course along the coast to the westward, and landed only at Coro, where he found, to his great astonishment, some Indians as much disposed to take away from him whatever he had got, as those on the eastern coast were ready to give. He had too much to lose, to run the risk of a war, by which neither glory nor emolument was to be acquir. ed. He, therefore, wisely took the resolution of returning to Spain, in order to place his riches out of the reach of danger.

The noise of his arrival and fortune spread over the whole kingdom, and immediately from every part expeditions were fitted out for Terra Firma. At the same time, Charles the Fifth gave permission to make slaves of the Indians, who should impede or embarrass the conquest; a disposition so much the more deplorable to humanity, as it strongly excited the cupidity of those who would sacrifice every thing at the shrine of avarice. It is easy to imagine, that upon those coasts, where robbery had nothing to fear either from the vigilance of the magistrate, or the sword of justice, there must have been established an infamous kind of commerce, which had no other object but avidity, no other result but rapacity, tyranny and ferocity. The crimes committed by that swarm of robbers, who contended with one VOL. I.

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